Information for Authors
DESCRIPTION
Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections is an international, scientific, open-access periodical published in accordance with independent, unbiased, and double-blinded peer-review principles. The journal is the official publication of the Center for Research and Practice in Natural Riches in Istanbul University and it is published biannually in February and August. Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections was published first time in August 2017. The journal has been published two issues in a volume since 2018. The publication languages of the journal are English and Turkish.
AIM AND SCOPE
Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections aims to contribute to the literature by publishing manuscripts at the highest scientific level on all fields of bioscience. The journal publishes original research, review articles, short communications, and obituary that are prepared in accordance with the ethical guidelines in all fields of biology and life sciences.
Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections includes peer-reviewed articles about natural science collections (catalog list, care, use, transport, news) in particular. We encourage papers from all those working with or researching these collections. Articles written about natural biological richness (fauna and flora studies) are also accepted.
EDITORIAL POLICIES AND PEER REVIEW PROCESS
Publication Policy
The subjects covered in the manuscripts submitted to the Journal for publication must be in accordance with the aim and scope of the journal. The journal gives priority to original research papers submitted for publication.
General Principles
Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by editor-in-chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope.
Short presentations that took place in scientific meetings can be referred if indicated in the article. The editor hands over the papers matching the formal rules to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and gives green light for publication upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims. Changing the name of an author (omission, addition or order) in papers submitted to the Journal requires written permission of all declared authors. Refused manuscripts and graphics are not returned to the author.
Open Access Statement
Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections is an open access journal which means that all content is freely available without charge to the user or his/her institution. Except for commercial purposes, users are allowed to read, download, copy, print, search, or link to the full texts of the articles in this journal without asking prior permission from the publisher or the author.
The articles in Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections are open access articles licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/deed.en/)
Copyright Notice
Authors publishing with the journal retain the copyright to their work licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International license (CC BY-NC 4.0) (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ ) and grant the Publisher non-exclusive commercial right to publish the work. CC BY-NC 4.0 license permits unrestricted, non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.
Article Processing Charge
All expenses of the journal are covered by the Istanbul University. Processing and publication are free of charge with the journal. There is no article processing charges or submission fees for any submitted or accepted articles.
Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.
Peer Review Process
Only those manuscripts approved by its every individual author and that were not published before in or sent to another journal, are accepted for evaluation.
Submitted manuscripts that pass preliminary control are scanned for plagiarism using iThenticate software. After plagiarism check, the eligible ones are evaluated by Editor-in-Chief for their originality, methodology, the importance of the subject covered and compliance with the journal scope. Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors and ensures a fair double-blind peer review of the selected manuscripts.
The selected manuscripts are sent to at least two national/international referees for evaluation and publication decision is given by Editor-in-Chief upon modification by the authors in accordance with the referees’ claims.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers’ judgments must be objective. Reviewers’ comments on the following aspects are expected while conducting the review.
- Does the manuscript contain new and significant information?
- Does the abstract clearly and accurately describe the content of the manuscript?
- Is the problem significant and concisely stated?
- Are the methods described comprehensively?
- Are the interpretations and consclusions justified by the results?
- Is adequate references made to other Works in the field?
- Is the language acceptable?
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees is important.
PUBLICATION ETHICS AND PUBLICATION MALPRACTICE STATEMENT
Turkish Journal of Bioscience and Collections is committed to upholding the highest standards of publication ethics and pays regard to Principles of Transparency and Best Practice in Scholarly Publishing published by the Committee on Publication Ethics (COPE), the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), the Open Access Scholarly Publishers Association (OASPA), and the World Association of Medical Editors (WAME) on https://publicationethics.org/resources/guidelines-new/principles-transparency-and-best-practice-scholarly-publishing
All parties involved in the publishing process (Editors, Reviewers, Authors and Publishers) are expected to agree on the following ethical principles.
All submissions must be original, unpublished (including as full text in conference proceedings), and not under the review of any other publication synchronously. Each manuscript is reviewed by one of the editors and at least two referees under double-blind peer review process. Plagiarism, duplication, fraud authorship/denied authorship, research/data fabrication, salami slicing/salami publication, breaching of copyrights, prevailing conflict of interest are unnethical behaviors.
All manuscripts not in accordance with the accepted ethical standards will be removed from the publication. This also contains any possible malpractice discovered after the publication. In accordance with the code of conduct we will report any cases of suspected plagiarism or duplicate publishing.
Research Ethics
The journal adheres to the highest standards in research ethics and follows the principles of international research ethics as defined below. The authors are responsible for the compliance of the manuscripts with the ethical rules.
- Principles of integrity, quality and transparency should be sustained in designing the research, reviewing the design and conducting the research.
- The research team and participants should be fully informed about the aim, methods, possible uses and requirements of the research and risks of participation in research.
- The confidentiality of the information provided by the research participants and the confidentiality of the respondents should be ensured. The research should be designed to protect the autonomy and dignity of the participants.
- Research participants should participate in the research voluntarily, not under any coercion.
- Any possible harm to participants must be avoided. The research should be planned in such a way that the participants are not at risk.
- The independence of research must be clear; and any conflict of interest or must be disclosed.
- In experimental studies with human subjects, written informed consent of the participants who decide to participate in the research must be obtained. In the case of children and those under wardship or with confirmed insanity, legal custodian’s assent must be obtained.
- If the study is to be carried out in any institution or organization, approval must be obtained from this institution or organization.
- In studies with human subject, it must be noted in the method’s section of the manuscript that the informed consent of the participants and ethics committee approval from the institution where the study has been conducted have been obtained.
Author Responsibilities
It is authors’ responsibility to ensure that the article is in accordance with scientific and ethical standards and rules. And authors must ensure that submitted work is original. They must certify that the manuscript has not previously been published elsewhere or is not currently being considered for publication elsewhere, in any language. Applicable copyright laws and conventions must be followed. Copyright material (e.g. tables, figures or extensive quotations) must be reproduced only with appropriate permission and acknowledgement. Any work or words of other authors, contributors, or sources must be appropriately credited and referenced.
All the authors of a submitted manuscript must have direct scientific and academic contribution to the manuscript. The author(s) of the original research articles is defined as a person who is significantly involved in “conceptualization and design of the study”, “collecting the data”, “analyzing the data”, “writing the manuscript”, “reviewing the manuscript with a critical perspective” and “planning/conducting the study of the manuscript and/or revising it”. Fund raising, data collection or supervision of the research group are not sufficient roles to be accepted as an author. The author(s) must meet all these criteria described above. The order of names in the author list of an article must be a co-decision and it must be indicated in the Copyright Agreement Form. The individuals who do not meet the authorship criteria but contributed to the study must take place in the acknowledgement section. Individuals providing technical support, assisting writing, providing a general support, providing material or financial support are examples to be indicated in acknowledgement section.
All authors must disclose all issues concerning financial relationship, conflict of interest, and competing interest that may potentially influence the results of the research or scientific judgment.
When an author discovers a significant error or inaccuracy in his/her own published paper, it is the author’s obligation to promptly cooperate with the Editor to provide retractions or corrections of mistakes.
Responsibility for the Editor and Reviewers
Editor-in-Chief evaluates manuscripts for their scientific content without regard to ethnic origin, gender, sexual orientation, citizenship, religious belief or political philosophy of the authors. He/She provides a fair double-blind peer review of the submitted articles for publication and ensures that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential before publishing.
Editor-in-Chief is responsible for the contents and overall quality of the publication. He/She must publish errata pages or make corrections when needed.
Editor-in-Chief does not allow any conflicts of interest between the authors, editors and reviewers. Only he has the full authority to assign a reviewer and is responsible for final decision for publication of the manuscripts in the Journal.
Reviewers must have no conflict of interest with respect to the research, the authors and/or the research funders. Their judgments must be objective.
Reviewers must ensure that all the information related to submitted manuscripts is kept as confidential and must report to the editor if they are aware of copyright infringement and plagiarism on the author’s side.
A reviewer who feels unqualified to review the topic of a manuscript or knows that its prompt review will be impossible should notify the editor and excuse himself from the review process.
The editor informs the reviewers that the manuscripts are confidential information and that this is a privileged interaction. The reviewers and editorial board cannot discuss the manuscripts with other persons. The anonymity of the referees must be ensured. In particular situations, the editor may share the review of one reviewer with other reviewers to clarify a particular point.
MANUSCRIPT ORGANIZATION
Language
The language of the journal is both Turkish and English.
Manuscript Organization and Submission
All correspondence will be sent to the first-named author unless otherwise specified. Manuscpript is to be submitted online via https://dergipark.org.tr/tjbc and it must be accompanied by a cover letter indicating that the manuscript is intended for publication, specifying the article category (i.e. research article, review etc.) and including information about the manuscript (see the Submission Checklist). Manuscripts should be prepared in Microsoft Word 2003 and upper versions. In addition, Copyright Agreement Form that has to be signed by all authors must be submitted.
1. Manuscripts should be submitted in Times New Roman font (size 11 pt). In writing of systematic papers, the International Codes of Zoological and Botanical Nomenclature must be strictly followed. The first mention in the text of any taxon must be followed by its authority including the year. The names of genera and species should be given in italics.
2. The manuscripts should contain mainly these components: title, abstract, keywords and body text. Body text should include the following sections: Introduction, Material and Methods, Results, Discussion, Grant Support (if any), Conflict of Interest (if any), Acknowledgement (if any), References [for Turkish articles Giriş, Materyal ve Yöntem, Bulgular, Tartışma ve Sonuç, Finansal Destek (eğer varsa), Çıkar Çatışması (eğer varsa), Teşekkür (eğer varsa), Kaynaklar] For descriptive articles, this structure might not be appropriate. Please use concise headings that fit best.
3. Pages should be numbered.
4. Submitted manuscripts must have an abstract of 250-300 words before the introduction section. Manuscripts in Turkish must include abstract both in Turkish and English. Underneath the abstracts, 4 to 5 keywords that inform the reader about the content of the study should be specified in Turkish and in English. If the manuscript is in English, it must include an abstract only in English. Original articles must have a structured abstract with subheadings (Objective, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion). Abstracts of Short Communications and Reviews should be unstructured.
5. The title page must be submitted together with the manuscript and it should include: manuscript title, running title and suggested two reviewers besides the author information as follows: the name(s), title(s), affiliation(s), e-mail address(es), postal address(es) including city and country, ORCID(s), telephone numbers of the authors and the corresponding author (see The Submission Checklist).
6. Tables should be numbered and cited in the text, for example: Table 1 (in Turkish Tablo 1). All tables should have a caption above the table ending to a “.”. All tables should be inserted at the end on main text. The authors can indicate the insertion place of tables in the text by putting the table's number in the bracket, for example [Table 1]. Tables must be self-explanatory, contain synthesized data, and not exceed A4 size. Data shown on graphs should not be repeated in tables and vice versa.
7. All figures should have a caption below the figure ending to a “.” Figures should be cited in the text, for example: (Fig. 1) (in Turkish Şek. 1). The font of the graphs or any text on the figures should be Times New Roman. Size of the text on graphs and illustrations should be 10 pt. Submitted manuscripts should have figures should be inserted at the end of the text after tables. Figures can be submitted separately. If figures are going to be submitted separately, prepare them with the following format (with a resolution no less than 300 dpi) and determine their locations in the paper: For vector graphics, EPS For halftones, TIFF format. The resolution of photographs must be 300 dpi at print size (original extension: jpg or tif). Line art pictures (tif extension) must be done electronically (not scanned) and their resolution must be 600 dpi at print size. The authors can indicate the insertion place of figures in the text by putting the figures' number in the bracket, for example [Figure 1].
8. Authors are responsible for all statements made in their work submitted to the Journal for publication.
9. The author(s) can be asked to make some changes in their articles due to peer reviews.
REFERENCES
Although references to review articles can be an efficient way to guide readers to a body of literature, review articles do not always reflect original work accurately. Readers should therefore be provided with direct references to original research sources whenever possible. On the other hand, extensive lists of references to original work on a topic can use excessive space on the printed page. Small numbers of references to key original papers often serve as well as more exhaustive lists, particularly since references can now be added to the electronic version of published papers, and since electronic literature searching allows readers to retrieve published literature efficiently. Papers accepted but not yet included in the issue are published online in the Early View section and they should be cited as “advance online publication”. Citing a “personal communication” should be avoided unless it provides essential information not available from a public source, in which case the name of the person and date of communication should be cited in parentheses in the text. For scientific articles, written permission and confirmation of accuracy from the source of a personal communication must be obtained.
Reference Style and Format
Detailed information can be found in the Author Guidelines section.
SUBMISSION CHECKLIST
Ensure that the following items are present:
● Cover letter to the editor
The category of the manuscript
Confirming that “the paper is not under consideration for publication in another journal”.
Including disclosure of any commercial or financial involvement.
Confirming that the statistical design of the research article is reviewed.
Confirming that last control for fluent English was done.
Confirming that journal policies detailed in Information for Authors have been reviewed.
Confirming that the references cited in the text and listed in the references section are in
line with APA 6.
● Permission of previously published copyrighted material if used in the present manuscript
The category of the manuscript
The title of the manuscript
All authors’ names and affiliations (institution, faculty/department, city, country), e-mail
addresses
Corresponding author’s email address, full postal address, telephone and fax number
ORCIDs of all authors.
● Main Manuscript Document
The title of the manuscript
Abstract (250-300 words)
Original articles must have a structured abstract with subheadings (Objective, Materials and Methods, Results, and Conclusion).
Abstracts of Short Communicaions and Reviews should be unstructured.
Key words: 3 to 5 words
Main article sections
Grant support (if exists)
Conflict of interest (if exists)
Acknowledgement (if exists)
References
All tables, illustrations (figures) (including title, description, footnotes)